Coronavirus infection rate in Sheffield drops sharply, according to new figures

There were 14.8 confirmed cases across the city per 100,000 people during the week ending Sunday, July 5, according to the latest data from Public Health England, published today.

That’s down from 24.4 cases per 100,000 the previous week and means Sheffield drops from eighth to 12th in the table of local authorities in England with the highest infection rates.

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Elsewhere in South Yorkshire, the infection rate in Doncaster fell from 21.3 to 11.9, in Rotherham it reduced from 26.1 to 21.5, and in Barnsley it dropped from 26.1 to 17.1.

Leicester still tops the table with 116 confirmed cases per 100,000 – down from 141.3 the previous week.

Rotherham is in sixth place, Barnsley is ninth, Sheffield 12th and Doncaster 16th.

By comparison, Manchester had 12.4 confirmed cases per 100,000 people, Liverpool 9.5, Leeds 5.6 and Birmingham 5.4.

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Sheffield’s director of public health, Greg Fell, said earlier this week that while the city was not at risk of lockdown, its infection rate was ‘too high’, with little room for manoeuvre.

He said the next two weeks to a month would be ‘critical’ and people would have to ‘keep up the vigilance’ for some time.

Public Health England’s weekly figures include positive results from both pillar one testing, in hospitals and other healthcare settings, and pillar two testing, in the wider community.

Across England, there were just over 3,300 cases detected in the week to Saturday, compared with more than 4,400 the previous week.

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The highest number of positive tests continue to be seen in the East Midlands and in Yorkshire and Humber.

Public Health England said the number of ‘acute respiratory infection incidents’ reported in care homes and hospitals had fallen but the number of incidents in workplaces remains ‘relatively stable’.

The number of incidents in schools and other educational settings, meanwhile, increased from 43 to 55 in the latest week.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, there have been 3,973 confirmed cases in Sheffield – a rate of 682.1 per 100,000 population.